14: I'm Underground

Now where were we? I already felt too busy to finish my last post, with its musings on my conversational habits... A fluffly topic from someone whose life was in a bit of a spot - a good one, but an iffy one. I had taken the contract extension to do the Reno project, which I had mixed feelings about but ultimately would keep me in the mix for any opportunities that came up.

It came up a lot sooner than I'd expected.

Only a few weeks later, while I was settling in and ready to make my mark on the job I had been hirss for, we (the print inventory team) were called in to a meeting saying that one of our colleagues, C, would no longer be with us. This was initially framed as being related to "the pod structure" gossip will be what it is and we all started taking stock of the aura surrounding his work station in the weeks and days preceding this. The next day I was called into a meeting with Murray and Philip asking whether I would be interested - and of course I would - in taking on some of C's duties as a way of learning the role...
 Which is to say the role I had interviewed and subsequently been passed over for.

I cannot stress how absolutely lucky I have been in my life. It almost sucks be a use it makes it difficult to discern exactly what I have done for myself. I have often been in the right place at the right tome, or known the right people. I got on at HMV because I had lost my temp retail gig the NIGHT before and this was the one year they were openly recruiting at the mall. I nearly quit because of the manager but persevered long enough to outlast her, and to outlast the one co-worker I dreaded seeing, got to go down with that ship, get a new job at Coles becausd my best friend worked there (and because I was a pretty hot free agent at the time) where two and a half years later - just long enough to get into a rut and for your girlfriend to start to get impatient about what you're ever going to do in life - I was standing next to Sandy when she saw a posting for a summer position that would be a good fit for somebody with store experience looking to move up in the company.

I have been lucky. I have had champions like Bev and Amanda and Sandy and Murray. I like to think I have gotten these opportunities because of that luck but that I have at least the good sense and ability to make something of them. To this day I have no idea what I said to Murray to convince him to hire me (I do plan on asking him someday when we finally get to sit down for a coffee) but if I hadn't made the most of (Optimized!) that role I doubt he would have kept pushing for me.

I was identified as gifted from a young age but had a hard time buying in... I saw myself as average with plenty of good people above me in the rankings. I have a knack for things, sometimes, but am also frequently clueless or behind and I often got frustrated with things that don't come naturally (although I've grown to see where things might distantly click later, which has saved me in recent years.)  And for a supposed would-be writer ideas sometimes come scarce.

But I got this job and it involved 2 weeks of considerable training alongside the person who had beaten me out (she's cool I guess). This while I was prepping stuff for the job I had been hired to do in the first place, which sadly fell by the wayside once this IA stuff really kicked into gear. The more I'm getting used to it, the more confident I've been getting about the future.

So, part two. Funny how your life can change on an innocent phone call. Back in November: I'd been putting off calling back my landlord's agent for days (Tamer rarely calls, does business mostly through Hussein.) I thought it was another case of him forgetting to deposit the check in time. But as it turned out he wanted to say Tamer was selling the house, and how soon could it be ready to show?

Um hold up??

This was something of a flap, and in a hurry we found ourselves scrambling to clean and prep the place while beginning to seek new residences. I had B take the lead in dealing with Hussein as I have basically been cohabitating with Mel and her Fam all year anyway. Aside from momentarily getting chewed out for supposedly eliminating the value of the appliances (by, you know, using them) he weathered it well. Brandon had hoped to stay at Postridge a long while and made an unsuccessful attempt tp bid for it. For Mel's and my part we were already having the discussion about getting our own place (having finally agreed it we needed to move downtown after commuting all year.) So for us the timing was actually pretty good, although I downplayed it. I mentioned before how much luck and timing has impacted my life but honestly getting a hard kick in the ass doesn't hurt either.

Mel and I began the process of looking for places in late November, with her proactively teeing up several viewings and me somewhat lollygagging on it in part due to lack of urgency and being consumed by my new role. We saw several places we didn't deem suitable - a furnished condo at King and Sudbury (about 20 mins west) that was well out of our price range - too much for what you get. A basement a little further west in a very rough neighborbood that wouldn't have been much better. We had a few runarounds and cancelations and saw some more small condos at Church and Carlton that started at our limit and went up. The leading contender for a minute was two floors of a house in Leslieville: 2 bedrooms, so even if it felt a bit far we thought of renting the extra room to Mel's friend Amanda (who is one of my faves of her squad) and the savings would have been a good big deal. But the winner ended up being a relatively spacious condo right in the downtown core - the space, price and location trifecta hit just perfectly (at our limit, squeezed up a hair, but you can't beat the location and the size was very appealing.) We had to pounce but we got it. Now the fun part.

While all this was going on, we had various social obligations and expectations... Our Anniversary on Dec. 4 (a very nice dinner at Stratus) my work Christmas Party the next night, Mel doing volunteer work Wed night, and her office party Friday. We saw the place Thursday (after a cramped dud in the same building) and found out we got it Friday.

My work party, I enjoyed for what it was. Kind of a ball/gala feel. A bit shmoozy, no sit down dinner so you find yourself mixing as best you can and talking over loud music. Some good live music and dancing but ad it was a weeknight I left early. Some cab mishaps. Met Mel at Rielle's and we crashed there, which was a nice preview of being able to wake up in the city. Her party was more like a wedding, smaller group, intimate venue, more games and personal attention, much more dancing - DJ, Friday night, smaller bit still full house. I liked mine more for me, hers more for us and overall. We stayed in a hotel after.

Saturday we went to Dad's for the first time since Eric's birthday and caught him up on all the stuff. And jeez was there a lot. The lines of communication in my family...

That has left us this week to finally treat this like "the holidays" with all the stress that brings. We went to Square One yesterday and it sappes the life out of us. Mel even got sick Friday morning (we worried it was a recurrence of her vertigo but fortunately it seems not.) I went the extra mile and brought her Giftswap gift in for her. King Boyfriend here. This was also the day we were to get the keys to our place and I promised her I wouldn't go up without her.

So much. Very full life lately. It's hard not to stock up all this stuff for a month when so much is going on. Any one week in the last month would have been a whole post with better detail. Wow, life. I can hardly believe it anymore. I'll try to check in again soon.

Keep,on rockin'
  - Scotto